Tag Archives: 1776

Thanksgiving is one of America’s few meaningful holidays in a nation that has been blessed with incredible natural resources and even more incredible good luck at key points in our history. But our greatest resource is one we have built for ourselves: America’s strong social cohesion. Our ability to stand together has carried us through the severe crises of the past two centuries.

Now a new time of crisis begins, and as always centrifugal forces appear to alienate us from our past and from each other. This makes us easy to lead.

Thanksgiving offers an opportunity to remember who we are, coming together to celebrate — and recall our shared history and remember that America belongs to us. No matter how powerful our foes, foreign and domestic, we can are responsible for America and the ability to win.

See Christopher Lasch’s work for an intellectual analysis of this, especially The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy (1994). For a musical explanation suitable for Thanksgiving see the “The Egg” by Sherman Edwards from the play “1776”. It explains why we have the eagle as our national bird — not the turkey or the dove. It’s well worth five minutes of your time.

Summary: We have become a new nation, and so need a new national Anthem. Just as the old anthem reflected the spirit and needs of the Republic, so should our new anthem. Here’s my nomination. Post yours in the comments!

The “Star Spangled Banner” fit The-America-That-Once-Was, a defiant song of a free people, often fighting to defend their Republic. It ill-suits a somnolent and obese people, whose armies fight to maintain a foreign empire that benefits only the 1%.

Here is a suggestion from the past about a national anthem for The New America. It has lyrics suitable for a plutocracy, reflecting the attitude of our ruling elites. The sing of their stark realism, which belies a popular delusion today that our ruling elites are fools. In fact they are, as they have always been, cool considerate men. Don’t count on them making large mistakes, or many of them.

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Lyrics to the new nation anthem for The New America

Come ye cool cool conservative men
The likes of which may never be seen again
We have land, cash in hand
Self-command, future planned
Fortune flies, society survives
In neatly ordered lives with well-endowered wives

For our Constitutional regime to survive the coming troubles we’ll need social cohesion. That means remembering who we are as a people and nation. Remembering our shared history. And most of all, remembering that America belongs to us, its citizens. No matter how powerful our elites grow, how much of its wealth they take into their hands, we can regain control and reform our institutions.

So they respond by polarizing our politics, sowing divisiveness and distrust. Divide and rule. Can we overcome our divisions, as we have during the crises of our past? Perhaps we should see our ruling elites much as the Founders saw Great Britain, aristocrats rulers ruling in their own interest — from whom we must seize control.

For an intellectual analysis showing this, see Christopher Lasch’s work, especially The Revolt of the Elites: And the Betrayal of Democracy (1994). For an equally clear presentation see the movie 1776. The song “The Egg” by Sherman Edwards from the play “1776” is especially appropriate for Thanksgiving, explaining why we have the eagle as our national bird — not the turkey or the dove. It’s worth five minutes of your time.